


To Family

by burnthiscityxx



Category: Outer Banks (TV)
Genre: F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:53:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25162708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burnthiscityxx/pseuds/burnthiscityxx
Summary: She’s just put half her family away in jail and the other half refuse to see her and she’s got all this money in the world – she has no family, but she has this. This is JJ, Pope, Kie, John B…and it’s enough.This is family.
Relationships: JJ & Kiara (Outer Banks), JJ/Kiara (Outer Banks), Sarah Cameron & JJ & Kiara & Pope & John B. Routledge, Sarah Cameron & John B. Routledge, Sarah Cameron/JJ/Kiara/Pope/John B. Routledge, Sarah Cameron/John B. Routledge
Comments: 16
Kudos: 96





	To Family

**Author's Note:**

> Basically, this fandom needs more fics in Sarah Cameron’s perspective because she’s an outsider and using her as a witness to Pogue life/relationships is fascinating. ALSO. This is something I started writing and it got away from me, but it basically picks up when they’re back from the Bahamas. I really wanted to explore Sarah’s headspace, given everything that happened with her family. Also, this is random, but big thanks to [RaeOfFrickingSunshine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaeOfFrickingSunshine/pseuds/RaeOfFrickingSunshine) – her fic sucked me in to the whole Kie-traveling-the-world storyline and I will forever be grateful.
> 
> Hope you like it and let me know what you think! :)

When the car drops them off at the Chateau, the sun is just starting to disappear behind the horizon, the sky burning orange. The air should smell like home – sea, salt, and sand – but standing in front of the familiar, small house, none of it feels real. Sarah rubs her thumb over John B’s knuckles and rests her head against his shoulder, anchors herself there, because after everything - he’s the only thing that feels real anymore. Nassau feels like a faraway dream, the Chateau seems out of reach, and despite knowing the ground underneath her belongs to what she supposedly calls home, it still feels like floating.  
  
John B drops a kiss to her hair, breathes her in, and then tilts her chin up to face him. He asks if she’s ready for this and she doesn’t know how to answer – how can anyone be ready for what’s about to come? They disappeared three months ago and nobody knows they made it to the Bahamas, or that they found the gold, or that they did the right thing and confessed. Nobody knows that they were brought back by the FBI, or that Rafe and Ward are in jail, or that Sarah is the one that can put them there.  
  
But John B’s looking at her like she has all the answers and she doesn’t, but she believes in him – so she nods, presses her lips to the back of his hand, and tells him she’s ready. They walk up to the Chateau and John B tells her to be quiet, before he bangs open the screen door and barges in, shouting and hollering, telling everyone to wake up.  
  
He immediately gets swallowed into a hug from JJ and Pope and then Kiara is squealing and running into Sarah’s arms and suddenly this – the Pogues, their friendships, their smiles – feels real.

* * *

It’s weird being back at Tanneyhill.  
  
With both Rafe and Ward in custody, Rose takes Wheezie and moves into the Cameron’s apartment in Chapel Hill, leaves the estate behind. The gardeners and the housekeepers are still there, but as Sarah walks through the house, everything looks untouched, like everyone just vanished. She climbs the stairs up to her room, fingers brushing over the family photos – it feels like they belong to a different family, a different life.  
  
John B is with her, holding her hand and being the kind of anchor she never thought she’d need. He packs the clothes she hands him into a small suitcase and the silence is loud, her thoughts echoing against the walls of the house. There’s a part of her that misses her stepmother, her little sister – and as much as she doesn’t want to admit it, a part of her that misses her dad and her brother. The Camerons were never close, but they were a family at one point. And just because everybody got a little greedy, it all fell apart. In two days, she’s supposed to give an official statement to the FBI and in the next few months, she and John B are going to be in and out of court rooms, dealing with lawyers, and signing papers. It’s overwhelming to think about – sure, they’re going to be coming in to a lot of money, but Sarah’s going to be putting away her _family_.  
  
She sits on the edge of her bed and takes a look around her childhood room. Pictures from Kook parties still decorate the wall and she feels almost embarrassed, wants to rip them down - but then John B is sitting next to her, warm and solid and safe. He wraps his arms around her and kisses her cheek and that’s all it takes for Sarah to fall apart, right then and there.  
  
She’s crying, ugly tears and loud hiccups, and suddenly she’s cradled in his lap and he’s whispering – _I’ve got you, I’ve got you, I’ve got you_. It takes her back to nights in the Bahamas, cold and dirty, finding places to sleep in rental cars and abandoned houses. She still has nightmares of being lost at sea, is still too afraid to go swimming in open water, and she’d think it was all pathetic, but John B’s going through the same thing – he hasn’t gotten on a surfboard since they got back.  
  
His hands are strong around her waist and after a few ragged breaths, she feels her heartbeat slow down to normal. She lifts her head to look at him and he just smiles, wipes her tears from her face with the pad of his thumb, and she sends a silent prayer that he’ll be hers forever. She likes being the only one who sees this side of him – sensitive, gentle, and sweet. Despite what the FBI agents try to tell her, she knows he’s not just a juvenile delinquent.  
  
John B is home.

* * *

Two months later, the authorities declare Sarah Cameron the sole owner of the gold found in the Bahamas. Her father and her brother are locked up, Rose won’t let her see Wheezie at all, and even though it seems like a victory, she can’t help but feel significant loss – she has the gold, but she definitely doesn’t have a family anymore.  
  
After the trial is over and she’s signed all the official papers, she curls up on John B’s bed, her fingers tracing the rivets in the wall. The Chateau is muggy and hot and it smells like coffee, sweat, and beer. She can hear JJ shouting with glee and Pope’s steady, calm voice, asking John B what’s going to happen next. And she wonders that too. Wonders if this changes everything, if getting the gold means they’ll look at her differently again. It was already hard enough trying to get their approval the first time around. She wants to think she didn’t need it then, but they love John B and he loves them, so she had to try, for his sake. Kie was the hardest to crack, obviously, but once they got on the same page, it was easy to rope in JJ and Pope.  
  
The door opens slowly and then she feels John B’s arms around her waist, his lips against the back of her neck. She melts into him easily, her body molding into his like it’s the most natural thing in the world, like it’s the one thing she knows for sure. He asks if she’s okay and she nods, then he says they should probably grab dinner. She wants to say no, wants to just stay in bed for the rest of her life, but her stomach rumbles then and John B chuckles, shifts so that he hovers above her. She pulls him close and thinks the only way she’ll ever feel safe again is if he’s with her. It’s a scary thought.  
  
When they come out of the room, the rest of the group are sitting quietly, eyes fixed on her. Kie is the first to hug her, then Pope and JJ follow.  
  
 _You’ve always got us._  
  
It comes from Pope, whispered against her hair, soft and sweet. She notices John B take a step back and suddenly she’s being hugged for real, JJ with his arms around her waist and Kie pressed against her back, Pope cradling her head and it’s all too much and not enough at the same time. She’s just put half her family away in jail and the other half refuse to see her and she’s got all this money in the world – she has no family, but she has _this_.  
  
This is JJ, Pope, Kie, John B…and it’s enough. This is family.

* * *

They leave the decision to her and in the end, Sarah decides to divide the gold between all of them, with some left over to donate to charities of their choice. JJ immediately decides to buy a house on Figure Eight, Pope’s sensible brain wants to put his share into a bank account, and Kie starts researching flights to Costa Rica. John B takes a little more time, decides he should put a little away for college, but he’s ultimately waiting for Sarah to make a decision.  
  
Except - she doesn’t know what to do with her share. She knows what causes she wants to help, knows she wants to put a little away to help out Wheezie, and maybe save some for any future legal issues (if Rafe ever gets released, she suspects he’ll try and take her inheritance). She’s already the sole owner of Tanneyhill and several other properties on Figure Eight, and all she really knows is that she should be thinking about college.  
  
In the end, she puts half of it away, links up with a trusted financial consultant to help her stretch it out into a lifetime of wealth, and then she starts looking up law schools. She’s not sure where that dream comes from, but if she can help put away the bad guys, then she’s game.  
  
(Sarah tries to block out the fact that she’s already put away her father and her brothers – that memory lives in a separate part of her brain).

* * *

Over the next few weeks, they move into Tanneyhill, one by one. Sarah and John B are the first to take up a room and they spend their days by the pool, fixing up the house, studying and applying to colleges on the West Coast. Then JJ arrives, because he’s put in an offer on both the estate next to Tanneyhill and the old Crain house. Kie shows up next, complaining about the slow Wi-Fi at The Wreck, before she starts to plan her trip around the world. Pope is last, he closes up the Chateau, moves into a room on the first floor and spends most of his time reading all the books they have in the library. Nobody bothers them and it’s easy – they make dinners, drink fancy wine and cocktails, spend their days laying out by the pool. Every once in a while, they’ll get a visit from the cops or from their team of lawyers, but it all passes without much fanfare. Life coasts along, but John B still doesn’t go surfing and Sarah still sleeps with the bathroom light on and they both wake up from nightmares.  
  
She goes shopping with Kie in Chapel Hill, helps her buy the things she needs for her world tour – sandals, backpacks, bug spray. They make up for the years they’ve lost and relive the good parts of Kie’s Kook year. Sarah helps Pope pack for college, reads over his essay submissions and makes sure he’s prepped and ready for the world. She even helps JJ with his real estate purchases – it doesn’t make sense on paper, but they work well together and JJ listens to her advice about loans and mortgages, makes smarter, better, decisions with her around.  
  
John B watches her from a distance when she’s with the Pogues, tell her that he wants to give her space to have that relationship on her own, without him. It’s late at night when she climbs on top of him, presses kisses against his neck, whispers that there’s no them without him, no her without him. They’re one now, all intertwined with each other, and physically held together by gold and money, but also something stronger – faith, hope, and friendship.  
  
He laughs and it’s the most beautiful sound she’s ever heard. 

* * *

They have a farewell party the week before they all go their separate ways - after a lot of deliberation, Sarah also invites the Kooks. There are at least eight kegs, tables full of alcohol and food, and JJ’s somehow taken the aux cord from Kelce and insists on his own playlist, which is a weird mix of EDM, country, and hip hop. The night sky glitters with stars and a few party-goers have already found the pool and it feels like the Boneyard, but at Tanneyhill, instead.  
  
The night goes pretty smoothly - Pope ends up talking to a girl who’s also going to UNC, while JJ and Kie get into some kind of argument that gets resolved fairly quickly, they’re both doing tequila shots and challenging people to beer pong in a matter of minutes. Sarah is leaning against the porch railing, surveying the party before her, when someone’s touch on her shoulder wakes her out of her thoughts. She thinks it’s John B, but when she turns around, it’s Topper – and she freezes. She’s not sure what he thinks about her now. He had taken the fall with the cops when she and John B escaped the church, but that was the last she’d seen of him.  
  
Topper apologizes for startling her and positions himself beside her, against the railing. He’s still handsome, a little rough around the edges (she knows that now), but still a classic Kook. It’s hard to remember what she loves about him, hard to see anything else but the stark difference between him and John B. But all Topper says is that he’s sorry for how everything went down, tells her that he’s glad everything got sorted out and that her life is turning out the way she wants. Sarah doesn’t know what to say to that. She’s not sure if this is the life she wants – father and brother in jail because of her testimony, stepmother and sister gone, her life upended and rearranged from everything she’s known since she was little. But she knows this is the closest she’ll ever get to a sincere apology from Topper, so she thanks him, instead.  
  
When he leaves, John B’s arms are immediately there to catch her before she collapses. He’s soft with her, all gentle touches and forgiving strokes of her cheek. He asks if she’s okay and she says yes, because she is – knows that it could be so much worse, but she’s here with the boy she loves, her future stretched out before her.  
  
It’s as good as it’s going to get.

* * *

Pope is the first to leave, takes the Twinkie and drives to UNC in the early morning. His goodbyes are short and sweet and they wave to him until the van disappears from view. Kie goes next, her big backpack swallowing her, as she climbs into a taxi to the airport, then on a plane, then around the world. JJ will meet her in Amsterdam in three weeks, but he hugs her a little longer than usual – Sarah sees a look pass between them and she smiles knowingly.  
  
JJ helps them load up her car with boxes, suitcases, and smaller bits of furniture that can fit. He and John B get into an argument about the best way to put everything into the trunk, but Sarah’s quiet, takes her last, final look at Tanneyhill. It’s where she grew up, where she was introduced to the Kook life, where she spent so much of her time dreaming of bigger, exciting adventures. And now here she is – about to spend the next week driving across the country with the love of her life, before they both start college.  
  
Which might be the craziest part of it all.  
  
It had taken long, sleepless nights of hard work and studying, but Sarah and John B had finally gotten their acceptance letters into the University of California, Berkeley. It isn’t her dream school (she’s not sure what is, anymore), but it’s far away enough that it feels like the right thing. California will be good for them – they’ll be near the water, living in dorms, and trying to be somewhat normal again.  
  
John B locks the car and double-checks that everything’s in place, while JJ comes to stand in front of her. Sarah knows she’s not supposed to hug him – there was a whole conversation about his boundaries – but she can’t help it. So she breaks the rules, hugs JJ as tight as she can and smiles when he hugs her back. She climbs into the car and lets the boys say goodbye and then they’re off on the open road, miles and miles stretched before them.

* * *

A year later, Sarah wiggles her toes in the sand and aims her phone so that it captures John B zig-zagging across the waves. The Pacific Ocean crashes around her feet and she squeals as a particularly big wave hits her ankles, making her stagger back. John B stumbles onto the sand, half-dragging, half-carrying his surfboard back to the beach blanket, where she offers him a bottle of water.  
  
It had taken six months of living in California for John B to finally start surfing again, another additional three for Sarah to even think about getting into the water. The nightmares started to fade by the time they went through their first mid-terms and the calls from their legal team and financial planning teams stopped around the same time. Getting away from the Outer Banks was what needed to happen so they could heal from all of it – the Bahamas, the gold, dealing with the cops and putting family behind bars. California is peaceful, quiet, and unproblematic. They wake up early, go for breakfast at local neighborhood cafes, take day trips to the woods, and go on hikes, help with beach clean-ups where they can. It's the kind of mundane routine they had been looking for.  
  
But today is going to be different.  
  
They make their way back to the beach house they were renting for the summer, an over-the-top villa that overlooked the ocean. It’s too much, especially for just two people, so when their friends start popping up one by one, the house feels just right.  
  
JJ shows up first, already shirtless, board shorts hung low on his hips, and a big backpack as his only luggage for the next three months. Pope arrives next, fresh off the plane, immediately claims a room to set up his laptop and start unpacking. Sarah lets the boys catch up while she makes dinner and her heart grows, seeing John B back with his best friends – back with his family. Kie shows up after dinner, grumbling about her flight from Mexico being delayed two hours, but she presents them with several bottles of tequila and all is right with the world. She hugs Sarah tight, whispers that she missed her the most, before getting swept up into JJ’s arms.  
  
They spend hours in and out of the pool, drinking and talking and catching up on the last year, and it isn’t perfect – Pope launches into too much detail about opening up a body that it almost makes Kie throw up, JJ knocks over three glasses of wine into the hot tub, and the boys nearly break one of the deck chairs. But even amidst all the chaos, Sarah can’t help but feel absolutely at peace.  
  
She thinks back to a year ago, coming back from the Bahamas, standing outside the Chateau and feeling completely out of her own body. She remembers the loss she felt, seeing Ward and Rafe put behind bars, remembers all the calls to Rose and Wheezie that were never picked up. If she closes her eyes, she can still feel the old memories crawl up her skin, like the flames that chased her and John B out of the church that night.  
  
But she’s here now – in California, in John B’s arms, in a house that’s perfect for this band of misfits she now calls her family. She’s here, with Pope, who still checks in regularly, sends them funny memes and articles about gold and treasure and the Outer Banks to keep them updated.  
  
She’s here, with JJ, who doesn’t care about boundaries anymore and hugs her whenever he gets the chance, who takes care of Tanneyhill and the other properties in her name.  
  
She’s here, with Kie, who tells her stories and takes care of her heart, makes sure John B treats her right and vice versa. Kie, who had the most to lose when Sarah came into the picture, is the one who tells her about the nights she’s spent with JJ and how they keep it a secret.  
  
Most of all, she’s here with John B, who is home, wherever they are. He’s real and their life together is real and they’re locked in for life, she reminds herself, fingers twirling the ring dangling from her neck – she won’t wear it officially yet, but it’s there, still.  
  
So in the drunken, early morning light, she pours them all a shot of tequila and they raise their glasses – to the secrets they keep, to the money they get to spend, to the world that still waits for them.  
  
 _To family._


End file.
